Over the past couple of weeks I’ve made some real progress with my lifts etc. and the incremental increases in weight have made achieving each goal easier. Everyone has a limit though, and this week I’ve been pushing myself beyond it. As I said last week, we’ve been seeing how heavy I can go, but now that I’m at my peak, this week we’ve been pushing my 1 rep max (1RM).

You can’t be afraid to fail when doing this and I think this stage of training can be make or break for a lot of people. It’s obviously really enjoyable when you lift more than you did last time, but when you get to your limit and are at the point of trying to go beyond it, be prepared to fail. Failure isn’t a negative word in weight training, in fact it’s quite the opposite. You’ll hear about performing reps “to failure”, which means you keep going until you can’t do any more. It’s those final few reps which really build muscle. Not being able to finish off a set is not a bad thing, it means you’re pushing yourself and it will make you stronger.

I’ve experienced failure a lot this week, Terry having to take the bar when I can’t push those extra kilos on the bench, performing deadlifts lighter than those I normally would because the technique on my 1RM was terrible. It would be quite easy to get disheartened by this but then you nail it and smash out a personal best and it’s all worthwhile. All the gains outweigh those failures. It also helps having someone spotting you shouting, “You’re sh*tting all over this, it’s lightweight, LIGHTWEIGHT!!!”

It’s been a difficult week and the devastating news that I’ll soon need to dramatically reduce carbs from my diet was quite a blow! But I’m over half way right now, I’ve achieved a hell of a lot over the past few weeks and things will get harder but I’m ready for it!